In the past, there have been systems that allow a user to send and receive faxes from a computer, such as their desk top computer. Most if not all of these systems, however, suffer from drawbacks not the least of which pertains to security and privacy.
For example, in many systems there is no way to differentiate between users who might receive a fax. This is inherently caused by the lack of an unambiguous recipient identification in the standard fax protocols. Thus, if a particular computer is shared by more than one user, each user typically has access to all of the faxes that are received by that computer. In the event that a faxed document contains sensitive material, those other than the intended recipient may be able to view the document. This situation is further compounded when a fax server is utilized, such as one that might be utilized by a large enterprise. In the fax server scenario, anyone with access to the server can access and view faxed documents that may be intended for other recipients. Needless to say, this is not a desirable situation.
Accordingly, this invention arose out of concerns associated with providing improved methods and systems for faxing documents.